Bhubaneswar: The long standing demand of the journalists has not been fulfilled. Introduction of Journalists’ Protection Bill should be included in the poll manifesto of the Bharatiya Janata Party. The Sambadika Milita Mancha (Joint Forum of Journalists’ Associations) has demanded to declare a special law for the protection of journalists. For this, a demand letter has been submitted to Lata Usendi Ji, who is the Co- Incharge of the BJP at the BJP office in New Delhi. A representative congregation led by the convenor of the Mancha Dr Lingaraj Sahoo handed over the demand letter .
Many people, including the editor of Mumbai Odia newspaper Dr. Bipin Bihari Mishra, Chinmayananda Badajena, Sanjay Giri, have given this demand letter to Ms.Usendi. Similarly, another memorandum was submitted to the leaders of Congress party in Delhi over the same demand. Sahoo said, “Many times, working journalists are subjected to attacks while doing their duty. Therefore, it is necessary to make a special law for their protection immediately. Journalists will benefit from the Journalist Welfare Scheme, including insurance for the health benefits of various journalists and their parents in India. It has also been demanded to cover journalists of various authorized web channels and news portal organizations in the insurance. Similarly, while the government is increasing the welfare fund of various groups, there is a demand to increase the welfare fund of journalists.
For pressing the demands, signatures of senior journalists have been collected and demand letters have already been given to MLAs, Ministers, Information and Public Relations Departments. Now, the demand letter has been given to include these demands in the election manifesto of the party.
